0:00:20 > 0:00:23It's Easter, 1941.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27The Second World War has been raging for a year and a half.
0:00:27 > 0:00:3118 months of victory for the Nazis,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34eighteen months of retreat and defeat for Britain
0:00:34 > 0:00:36and her Commonwealth allies.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39But here, in North Africa,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43on the outskirts of a small desert town called Tobruk,
0:00:43 > 0:00:45things are about to change.
0:00:59 > 0:01:00Sweet Jesus.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15There are 11,000 British soldiers defending Tobruk.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Men from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Joined by 14,000 raw volunteers from Australia.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27'I was scared, naturally.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30'You had the wind up, but you were there doing a job,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32and you knew damn well you had to do it.
0:01:32 > 0:01:37And in all cases, shame would keep you there
0:01:37 > 0:01:40because you couldn't let anybody else see that you were afraid.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44'We were inexperienced, you see?'
0:01:44 > 0:01:48But we were so excited and we were prepared to have a go.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55Coming at them, the toughest,
0:01:55 > 0:01:57most experienced fighting force in the world.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10The Germans. They were magic words.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14No one had stopped them and now we were going to meet them.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20The Australian Infantry and the British Artillery
0:02:20 > 0:02:24went into that battle knowing that the fate of the war depended on them.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32'All these screaming planes coming down
0:02:32 > 0:02:34'and letting a bomb straight at you.'
0:02:34 > 0:02:36If anybody wasn't frightened, well, they weren't human.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Well, I saw the tanks and I saw the infantry behind them.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01And they were coming towards us. It was an absolute circus.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08It's from Rommel.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14"Show white flags and you will be out of danger. Surrender."
0:04:14 > 0:04:16Ah, tell him to go get stuffed.
0:04:21 > 0:04:28General Erwin Rommel will soon become the most celebrated soldier in the German army.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32In North Africa, he'll simply be known as the Desert Fox.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Rommel is the master of rapid tank warfare.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01In May 1940, Rommel's German Panzers had swept through France
0:05:01 > 0:05:04in a blitzkrieg that took him all the way to the English Channel.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15But the pitiless desert of North Africa
0:05:15 > 0:05:17was a very different battlefield.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22There are enormous distances to travel,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26there's little food or water or shelter
0:05:26 > 0:05:28and he hasn't counted on the resolve
0:05:28 > 0:05:31of the Allied troops who will come to oppose him.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35Men like 20-year-old Gordon Wallace from Queensland...
0:05:35 > 0:05:36'We had two options.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39'Either win or be taken prisoner, so there was no option.'
0:05:39 > 0:05:41There was no way on God's earth
0:05:41 > 0:05:43we were going to surrender, that's for sure.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47..19 year-old Alex Sim from Aberdeen...
0:05:47 > 0:05:50'The air was tense, you know. You're apprehensive.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54How will you react when the shots come, the bullets come,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58in your direction, whizzing past your ear?
0:05:59 > 0:06:02..and 21 year-old Ray Ellis from Nottingham.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05I was actually in the trenches
0:06:05 > 0:06:07with the Australian Infantry
0:06:07 > 0:06:08during the Easter battle.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15I was cheek by jowl with those men of the 2nd 17th Australian Infantry.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25You realise that the men on the artillery
0:06:25 > 0:06:28actually do not see the enemy.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30They're several thousand yards behind.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34So you've got to have eyes and that is the observation post
0:06:34 > 0:06:36up forward with the infantry.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39And that was the most dangerous job in the regiment.
0:06:39 > 0:06:40That was me.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Range, 5-8-50! Five rounds!
0:06:46 > 0:06:47Range, 5-8-50!
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Drop 500!
0:06:49 > 0:06:50Five rounds gunfire!
0:06:50 > 0:06:52Five rounds gunfire. Fire!
0:06:57 > 0:07:02As the German Infantry came across No Man's Land towards us,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05so we were reducing the range of our own guns
0:07:05 > 0:07:08until eventually we were calling down fire upon ourselves.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10Drop 500! Five rounds gunfire.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12Fire!
0:07:12 > 0:07:13Fire 300. Fire 300!
0:07:13 > 0:07:15Fire!
0:07:16 > 0:07:17Fire!
0:07:27 > 0:07:29And the smell.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31There's a smell in the battle. There's a smell.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36It's blood. Cordite.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40As well as the sound. The sounds, the sights.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42Well, it's all there, all the senses are involved.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47And you shoot at anything,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49whether it's running this way or running the other way.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51It makes no difference.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53I don't think you're quite human when you really get a go on.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28All of a sudden, raw troops, we're being attacked by German Panzers.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30And they're big bastards, believe me.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39From his underground bunker within the Tobruk perimeter,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Australian General Leslie Morshead orders his men
0:08:42 > 0:08:47to stand their ground and let the German Panzers pass by them,
0:08:47 > 0:08:51drawing the enemy closer to the British artillery.
0:08:56 > 0:08:575-150!
0:08:57 > 0:08:595-150!
0:09:09 > 0:09:13When the tanks came, they were firing point blank at the tanks.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18I saw one battery Sergeant Major with his arm almost shot off at the shoulder, still giving fire orders.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38To be in the middle of a bayonet fight is absolutely terrifying.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Because this is real.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45YELLING
0:09:50 > 0:09:53You're seeing a piece of steel go straight into a man's body,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56and you're seeing men screaming and in agony and kicking,
0:09:56 > 0:09:58and you're in the middle of it.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07GROANING
0:10:23 > 0:10:27In April 1941, after three days of carnage,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31these Commonwealth soldiers have done something that nobody else
0:10:31 > 0:10:33has yet achieved in the Second World War.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37They've stopped a German offensive in its tracks.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44It was the first time that the German army had been stopped
0:10:44 > 0:10:47and they were stopped by the Australian Infantry
0:10:47 > 0:10:50and the British Artillery.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52When we started that battle,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55they were referring to us as Pommie bastards.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00But at the end of the battle, we'd become cobbers.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26By April 1941, Hitler's Nazi war machine controls much of Europe
0:11:26 > 0:11:30and is expanding. With its Axis partners,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Germany has become the most powerful nation on the planet
0:11:33 > 0:11:38and appears unstoppable. The USA is neutral.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42The Soviet Union has a non-aggression pact with Germany.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44Now, aided by Fascist Italy,
0:11:44 > 0:11:49Hitler's army threatens to sweep into Egypt, seize the Suez Canal
0:11:49 > 0:11:52and occupy the oilfields of the Middle East.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55The vast bulk of Britain's oil
0:11:55 > 0:11:57comes from Basra,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01and from down in Persia and it goes through the Suez Canal.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03HORN BLARES
0:12:03 > 0:12:08As far as Britain is concerned, the Suez Canal is, as a waterway,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11second in importance only to the River Thames.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14It's a lynchpin of the British Empire.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Which is why General Erwin Rommel is so desperate to take it.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23But to do so, he must first take Tobruk.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27'Tobruk is the only deep water port between Tripoli
0:12:27 > 0:12:29'and Alexandria that can handle'
0:12:29 > 0:12:31the sorts of supplies
0:12:31 > 0:12:35that Rommel is going to need if he is actually going to drive into Egypt.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37If he can't take Tobruk,
0:12:37 > 0:12:39his supply lines have to travel over a thousand miles
0:12:39 > 0:12:42across a single desert road all the way to the front.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34If Rommel can take Tobruk,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37there is virtually nothing to stop the Afrika Korps
0:13:37 > 0:13:39and its Italian allies from reaching Cairo.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44But standing in his way is a heavily fortified line.
0:13:46 > 0:13:53After colonising Libya in 1934, the Italians made Tobruk a fortress.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57It is surrounded by 30 miles of concrete bunkers, barbed wire
0:13:57 > 0:13:59and a deep anti-tank trench.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06Whilst Tobruk has been in Allied hands since January 1941,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Italian and German Axis forces control the rest of Libya,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13right up to the Egyptian border.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18The main Allied army in Egypt is scattered and vulnerable
0:14:18 > 0:14:20and Middle East Commander in Chief Archibald Wavell
0:14:20 > 0:14:23is desperate for reinforcement.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26'Wavell asked the Australians in Tobruk'
0:14:26 > 0:14:28to hold Rommel's forces
0:14:28 > 0:14:34in play for eight weeks while the main army regrouped back in Egypt.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38The Australians dig in,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42not knowing that eight weeks will become eight months.
0:14:42 > 0:14:48'I just turned 21, and I was 21 all through Tobruk.'
0:14:48 > 0:14:50They put us in with some of the old hands,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52although the old hand that I went into a hole with was a chap
0:14:52 > 0:14:55named Rex MacDonald who came from Sydney.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56Rex MacDonald.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58He was an old hand as far as the fighting was concerned
0:14:58 > 0:15:01because he'd been with them right from the word go,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03but he was younger than I was.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10But he told me, you know, what to watch out for.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Don't worry about that, mate. You can tell by the sound.
0:15:14 > 0:15:15It's going way past us.
0:15:21 > 0:15:26A bit of a rough sort of an introduction!
0:15:32 > 0:15:36The Tobruk commander is Australian General, Leslie Morshead.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39He's a veteran of the Gallipoli trenches
0:15:39 > 0:15:42and knows what it takes to endure a siege.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46We'll have no Dunkirk here. If we get out of here,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50it'll be down a road we have cleared for ourselves in battle.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53There will be no surrender and no retreat.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58Every man in the garrison, whether he be a cook,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02a mechanic or a clerk, regardless of rank,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04should be ready to pick up a weapon.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Some of the blokes out of the mortar platoon became gunners,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11with the help of the British gunners, showed us what to do.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15And it was a gun,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18you looked up the barrel to get a sight.
0:16:19 > 0:16:20Bob Anson is a signaller,
0:16:20 > 0:16:26but also a member of what comes to be known as "the bush artillery".
0:16:26 > 0:16:31They use captured Italian guns to take pot shots at enemy positions.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34And it was operated by a crew of mortar men,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36or operated individually by a bloke who was passing by.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43Just to send a shell out over El Adem, to throw a bit of dust
0:16:43 > 0:16:46and annoy the transport of the Germans that were going up
0:16:46 > 0:16:48and down outside the wire.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Conditions in the Libyan desert in midsummer were quite appalling.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06The temperature rarely fell below 40 degrees.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11Lack of water was the first of the major problems.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14What the men on both sides had to do as use their water very,
0:17:14 > 0:17:16very sparingly indeed.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Inside the Tobruk perimeter, conditions are no better.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52Fortunately, Joe Madeley has somebody to show him the ropes.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57Rex MacDonald, he said, "Oh, you get your water bottle full".
0:17:57 > 0:18:00You're gonna get that full. You have to have a bit of a wash.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03He said, "Get a bit of a pull through..."
0:18:03 > 0:18:06A little rag, it's just here, here and here.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08"That's enough", he said. "Just wipe here and there", he said.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11"Because you've got to remember", he said ...
0:18:11 > 0:18:15It's got to last you. That's all the water you get for the day.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17He said, "It gets very hot during the day here", he said.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19"Hot and dusty," he said,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22"and water is one of the things you're going to miss out on."
0:18:24 > 0:18:26And I learned very quickly.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28BULLET RICOCHETS
0:18:32 > 0:18:33Defending Tobruk means hard work
0:18:33 > 0:18:35and thorough organisation as well as hard fighting.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38You'll realise this as you come with me
0:18:38 > 0:18:41from dockside to gun pit, and from hospital to machine gun post,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45so you may hear what actually happens during a typical day in Tobruk.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47Chester Wilmot, an Australian war correspondent
0:18:47 > 0:18:49who'd gone to Tobruk,
0:18:49 > 0:18:51was able to feed information
0:18:51 > 0:18:54to the British broadcasting media.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58And he was able to give a bird's eye view about what was
0:18:58 > 0:19:01happening inside the perimeter.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04'During the day, the crew sit and lie around reading, writing
0:19:04 > 0:19:07'and playing draughts, or perhaps they kick a soccer ball around.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10'When I first saw them play soccer here one evening,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13'I was amazed to hear them calling out a famous Australian football war cry,
0:19:13 > 0:19:17'"Up there, Cazaly". As a broad Scotch voice came out with this,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20'it didn't seem right that this essentially Australian catch cry
0:19:20 > 0:19:22'should be shouted in a foreign tongue,
0:19:22 > 0:19:23'a foreign game in a foreign land.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26'But the Scotties had picked it up from some nearby Diggers
0:19:26 > 0:19:29'with whom they used to play a friendly game.'
0:19:29 > 0:19:33- Yeah, Cazaly! - He's open! Get it in! Yay!
0:19:34 > 0:19:37'For the first time in this war, you have troops facing each other
0:19:37 > 0:19:39'across a narrow strip of No Man's Land.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44'By hard work and ingenuity, the men have made themselves as comfortable as they can
0:19:44 > 0:19:48'in a shallow trench that's continually swept by drifting dust.'
0:19:48 > 0:19:50We used to sit down in the morning
0:19:50 > 0:19:53and see how many fleas you could catch in your blanket.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57"Jeez, I got 110 this morning",
0:19:57 > 0:20:00and the Germans'd be doing the same across from us.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02They were only about 200 yards away from us at one section.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07Oh, the fleas were something shocking. And the flies.
0:20:07 > 0:20:08Don't talk about the flies.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13We had never been used to flies, you know, and they were everywhere.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17You only had to graze your finger and a fly alighted onto it,
0:20:17 > 0:20:23and you know, within days it had developed into a big sore.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Food at Tobruk is the most basic military ration.
0:21:19 > 0:21:2299% of the time it was bully beef and biscuits.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26The biscuits were about six inches square,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30three parts of an inch thick, hard as rock.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Now our refrigerator was about an acre square
0:21:34 > 0:21:38and about four cases high, out in the boiling sun,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42so you just had to take the chance of it being all right when you opened it.
0:21:42 > 0:21:48It had a key that you put into this strip on the tin and wound it up.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50If you were lucky it went all the way round
0:21:50 > 0:21:54and you can take the top off and push the bully beef out.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57And of course it was this greasy oil and stuff came out of it
0:21:57 > 0:22:01when you were doing this and most unappetising, but it was food.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Cheers, boys.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06The food was appalling.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09We had no vegetables or fruit or anything,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11and so we had to take ascorbic acid tablets,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14otherwise we'd have got scurvy.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23The Italian rations supplied to the Axis forces are even worse.
0:22:39 > 0:22:44Even Rommel has to eat from a tin, and like his men,
0:22:44 > 0:22:48he soon develops dysentery and desert sores.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10But food and flies are the least of Rommel's problems.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15Despite the fact that Tobruk's fortifications were built by the Italians,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19not one of them can supply him with a detailed map.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51Without a proper map, Rommel's next attack plan is hand drawn.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56Gentlemen, our positions in the field.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Hill 209.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01In Tobruk headquarters, Morshead is much better informed.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03We must hold this at all costs.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07And he knows where to put his best men, on the high ground.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11In the south west corner of the Tobruk perimeter,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14there's a bit of a hump, a thing called Hill 209.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17Its local name, Ras el Madauar.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Even though it's not much more than a hump, you get on top of it
0:24:20 > 0:24:22and you can see the entire Tobruk area.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25So whoever possesses it gets a huge advantage,
0:24:25 > 0:24:27because they can get their artillery observation officers
0:24:27 > 0:24:29up on top of that hill,
0:24:29 > 0:24:31they can get their machine guns up on top of that hill
0:24:31 > 0:24:35and they can dominate a huge great area with firepower.
0:24:42 > 0:24:48On April 30th, two weeks after his first attack, Rommel tries again.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59This time, his forces break through a small section of the perimeter,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01despite fierce resistance.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Rommel's gains are minimal,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30a small bulge or "salient" in the Australian line,
0:25:30 > 0:25:33but it costs him dearly.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38A thousand casualties and half his tanks.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44And Tobruk is still in his enemy's hands.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48The one point where a British army
0:25:48 > 0:25:51and a German army were clashing was Tobruk.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53It was in the news all the time.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Tobruk was holding out,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58we were dishing out as good as we got or more.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02It did seem to give a sense of hope
0:26:02 > 0:26:05to the people of Britain, Australia,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07the Allies who were fighting against the Germans,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10that the Germans could be beaten.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13'Here we are at an ack-ack post beside the Tobruk Harbour.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15'Nearly all the crew come from Bathgate, near Edinburgh.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19'The story of life in this post is best told by the gunners themselves.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21'So Jock, do you find it much of a strain on your eyes,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24'peering into that bright sun looking for planes?
0:26:24 > 0:26:27'Aye, it is, especially for us Scotsmen.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29'We're used to dull skies and it takes some getting used to,
0:26:29 > 0:26:31'this bright sun.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33'Here is the Sergeant in command of the post.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36'So, Sarge, do you think a Stuka has much of a chance
0:26:36 > 0:26:37'when he dives on a Bofors gun?
0:26:37 > 0:26:41'One Stuka against one gun, the gun'll get the Stuka first,
0:26:41 > 0:26:42'four times out of five.'
0:26:42 > 0:26:45SIREN BLARES
0:26:47 > 0:26:51'The Australians are the first to admit that these and other British gunners
0:26:51 > 0:26:52'have saved the garrison more than once.'
0:27:02 > 0:27:04There's this deafening whistle,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07you know, terrifying whistle, you know,
0:27:07 > 0:27:09when it comes screaming at you.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18The performance of the Tobruk garrison
0:27:18 > 0:27:21is especially welcomed by Winston Churchill.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24He's desperate to bring the Americans into the war
0:27:24 > 0:27:27and this is ideal propaganda.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30Churchill was always convinced that
0:27:30 > 0:27:32the worst thing we could possibly do
0:27:32 > 0:27:35was present ourselves to the Americans, still neutral,
0:27:35 > 0:27:40as victims, as poor people out for the count,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44"Would the Americans please come and pull our chestnuts out of the fire?"
0:27:44 > 0:27:48And I'm sure that this is why he cared so passionately
0:27:48 > 0:27:53about being seen to fight hard in North Africa and being seen to win.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58Churchill sends a cable to Middle East headquarters in Cairo,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01urging an immediate attack to break the siege at Tobruk.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05General Wavell responds with a combined armoured
0:28:05 > 0:28:10and infantry assault at Halfaya Pass near the Egyptian border.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Operation Battleaxe will smash through the Axis forces
0:28:14 > 0:28:17and drive on to Tobruk to relieve the garrison.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20MORSE CODE BEEPS
0:28:20 > 0:28:24Details of the plan are sent to troops assembling in the desert.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30But British signals units are not the only ones listening.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40German Unit 621 is Rommel's mobile "ears in the desert",
0:28:40 > 0:28:44and for months it's been monitoring thousands of Allied signals.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46Rommel's getting a very clear picture
0:28:46 > 0:28:50of the British order of battle from Unit 621.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54This is a group of perhaps 200 very, very effective signallers,
0:28:54 > 0:28:55but also linguists.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58It's a concentration of German soldiers
0:28:58 > 0:29:01and German officers who are fluent in English.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05And by fluent I mean that they're capable of using British slang.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09'Harrier 1, the Wooden Tops are a man down at Lords, over.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13- 'Sticky wicket, over? - No, Winnie's thrown a shoe and needs the farrier, over.'
0:29:13 > 0:29:15British radio discipline was dreadful.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19They will chat to each other as though they're talking on telephones.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21They will use nicknames.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23They will even use the nicknames of their regiments,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27believing of course that the Germans won't know who the Wooden Tops are
0:29:27 > 0:29:31or who the Harriers are. But of course, the Germans do know this.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34'We have to get a man down there now or we'll be hit for six, over.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38'Harrier 1, I can't get there till after tea. You'll have to...'
0:29:38 > 0:29:42And this was an absolute gift to the boys of 621
0:29:42 > 0:29:47who were listening in, putting together an entire order of battle
0:29:47 > 0:29:50from the chit-chat they were picking up.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56On June the 14th, 1941,
0:29:56 > 0:29:59the day before the launch of Operation Battleaxe,
0:29:59 > 0:30:04Unit 621 alerts Rommel when and where it will begin.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08The Desert Fox has time to prepare an ambush.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13He sends his deadly 88 millimetre guns to Halfaya Pass
0:30:13 > 0:30:15and waits for the allied approach.
0:30:15 > 0:30:21The 88 could fire a larger shell over a longer distance
0:30:21 > 0:30:24with greater accuracy than any other gun in the desert.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28The shell left the barrel
0:30:28 > 0:30:32faster than the speed of sound,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35and the terrifying effect of this
0:30:35 > 0:30:38was that the first thing you knew
0:30:38 > 0:30:40sitting in your tank brewing up tea,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43is that the tank next to you would explode in flame.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Shortly after that you would hear a crack
0:30:48 > 0:30:51and then you'd see a little puff of smoke out there,
0:30:51 > 0:30:53and that was an 88 that had just taken your neighbour out.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Operation Battleaxe starts badly.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08The British tanks advance without the expected infantry or aerial support,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11straight towards the hidden German 88s.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19Those 88 millimetre guns
0:31:19 > 0:31:24would knock out an English tank at 2,000 yards.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26If it hit at the right angle,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29where the turret joins the hull,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32it would lift the turret right out of the hull
0:31:32 > 0:31:35and it would throw it up in the air.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49I mean, obviously if that happened, nobody would survive that.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52It would be instant death for all of them.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02In three days, the British lose nearly 100 tanks and 1,000 men.
0:32:05 > 0:32:06British tactics were appalling,
0:32:06 > 0:32:08that they just had not learnt
0:32:08 > 0:32:09how to integrate tanks,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13anti-tank guns and infantry as is absolutely essential in modern war.
0:32:15 > 0:32:16Wavell sends Churchill a telegram.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21"I regret to report the failure of Battleaxe."
0:32:21 > 0:32:23The Prime Minister is livid.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27There's only one thing that matters when you're deciding
0:32:27 > 0:32:30who your generals should be, can they win battles?
0:32:30 > 0:32:33And Wavell had lost his confidence.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35And generalships just like anything else,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38unless you believe you can beat the enemy, you're not going to do it.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44Churchill sacks Wavell and appoints Claude Auchinleck to replace him.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54In the meantime, the Afrika Korps has its own problems.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58Hitler has broken a non-aggression pact with Stalin,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06All available supplies are going there, rather than North Africa.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11For an ambitious general like Rommel,
0:33:11 > 0:33:12it's an enormous frustration.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17If you really want to find out what Erwin Rommel was like as a man
0:33:17 > 0:33:19and what was going on in his mind at the time,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22you've got to read a series of documents,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26all of which start with the words, "Dearest Lu".
0:33:26 > 0:33:27They are his letters to his wife.
0:33:27 > 0:33:33"Dearest Lu, a quite atrocious heat, even during the night.
0:33:34 > 0:33:39"One lies in bed, tossing and turning and dripping with heat.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45"It's no good going until the Russian affair is more or less over,
0:33:45 > 0:33:48"otherwise there will be scant regard for my interests.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53"I for one wouldn't be sorry to have a change of theatre."
0:34:02 > 0:34:05With the onset of summer in North Africa,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08the Desert War slides into a sweltering stalemate.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14Neither side has the resources, or the energy, to launch a new attack.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18Opinions were very divided about holding Tobruk.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21The Navy wasn't keen at all, because they said,
0:34:21 > 0:34:23our ships are taking a terrible hammering supplying Tobruk.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25Why are we doing this?
0:34:25 > 0:34:29But then it slowly began to dawn on people.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Here you've got this weird saga in the making,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37that the Australians who are garrisoning Tobruk and holding Tobruk
0:34:37 > 0:34:39are producing a little epic of their own,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42that at a time when the main army's not doing much
0:34:42 > 0:34:45and he's just desperately trying to get itself some more tanks
0:34:45 > 0:34:49and retrain and regroup and prepare itself to take on Rommel again,
0:34:49 > 0:34:53that here suddenly is this terrific propaganda epic.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58'Although Tobruk has had a pretty good bashing, it still holds up.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01'More than that, it's a real thorn in the enemy's side.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05'In spite of air raids and bombardments, the life of the stout-hearted garrison
0:35:05 > 0:35:07'goes on almost as if it hadn't a care in the world.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12'With a sense of humour plus enough to eat, you can stick most things.'
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Unable to break through Tobruk's physical resistance,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22the German Propaganda Ministry launches a psychological attack.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26RADIO: 'Germany calling, Germany calling,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30'Station Bremen and Station DXB with GK2 on the 31 metre band.
0:35:30 > 0:35:38'A special hello to all those rats in their little holes in Tobruk in North Africa.'
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Lord Haw Haw. Yeah, he'd come over on the radio every night,
0:35:41 > 0:35:42or every second night.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45'Our thanks to these self-supporting prisoners
0:35:45 > 0:35:50'living their wretched existence six feet underground.'
0:35:50 > 0:35:54He called us Germany's self-supporting prisoners of war.
0:35:54 > 0:35:55He called us that.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59He said we were living like rats in the ground, in holes in the ground.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04This ordeal, this experience of Tobruk has bonded together
0:36:04 > 0:36:09a whole range of servicemen in a way which rarely happens.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11Oh, OK, you're going to call us rats.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15Well we're very proud to be rats, thank you very much.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17We are the Rats of Tobruk, and it stuck.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22And eventually, the name "The Rats of Tobruk",
0:36:22 > 0:36:26was more or less taken over as a source of pride.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29They thought The Rats of Tobruk weren't doing too bad.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32They were holding the mice of Germany out, anyhow.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38Lord Haw Haw's is not the only voice on German radio that the rats enjoy.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49# Vor der Kaserne Vor dem grossen Tor
0:36:49 > 0:36:51# Stand eine Laterne
0:36:51 > 0:36:54# Und steht sie noch davor... #
0:36:54 > 0:36:58Her name was Lale Andersen, and she used to sing a beautiful song
0:36:58 > 0:37:02which became the 8th Army hit after a while, Lili Marleen.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06# Wie einst Lili Marleen
0:37:06 > 0:37:10# Wie einst Lili Marleen
0:37:10 > 0:37:13# Wie einst Lili Marleen. #
0:37:48 > 0:37:51# Underneath the lantern By the barrack gate... #
0:37:51 > 0:37:53But she used to sing it in German.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56# Und steht sie noch davor...
0:37:56 > 0:38:00# So woll'n wir uns da wieder seh'n
0:38:00 > 0:38:04# Bei der Laterne wollen wir steh'n
0:38:04 > 0:38:08# Wie einst Lili Marleen
0:38:08 > 0:38:12# Wie einst Lili Marleen
0:38:12 > 0:38:16# Wie einst Lili Marleen. #
0:38:18 > 0:38:20"Dear Mother and Father,
0:38:20 > 0:38:21"Here I am again,
0:38:21 > 0:38:22"still alive and kicking
0:38:22 > 0:38:25"and wondering what on earth I'm going to write..."
0:38:25 > 0:38:26"Dear Mum and Dad,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28"it's been two months since we got here..."
0:38:28 > 0:38:31"Dear Mother, please write as many letters as you can
0:38:31 > 0:38:33"as we know our letters off by heart.
0:38:33 > 0:38:34"It's dreadfully hot..."
0:38:34 > 0:38:39"I'm always thinking about home and green hills and sweet water..."
0:38:39 > 0:38:40"Dear Leonard,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43"thank you for the ten shillings sent for Thelma's birthday."
0:38:43 > 0:38:47"And Hamish at the Three Keys saying, 'That's there right, laddie.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49"'You've got to be 18 to be a soldier.'"
0:38:49 > 0:38:52"Dear Jimmy, still no letter from you, my darling.
0:38:52 > 0:38:54"I'm hoping and praying that everything is all right.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56"I went to see a silly film at the Odeon..."
0:38:56 > 0:38:58"I heard from Binky with the last lot of mail.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01"She says she still loves me, poor girl.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04"I don't think she even knows me, really."
0:39:04 > 0:39:05"Bindle had her foal, a filly,
0:39:05 > 0:39:08"and trotting behind Mum like a thoroughbred..."
0:39:08 > 0:39:11"The last big battle was fought here. I think it was Easter.
0:39:11 > 0:39:12"It was a snorter.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17"Things have been rather quiet lately, but any time now... "
0:39:28 > 0:39:29Shells came over
0:39:29 > 0:39:31so I dived into the first hole.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33And I had my rifle with me, mind you,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36but I dove in the hole, of course, I dived on top of it.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38And another shell's come over and the next thing,
0:39:38 > 0:39:40two blokes dive in on top of me.
0:39:44 > 0:39:45And they were Germans.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53Well, we started to fight and then a couple more shells come over
0:39:53 > 0:39:55and we were hugging one another in the bottom of the hole.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15And when the shelling stopped,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18this big fella said, "Bloody Italians!", he said.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20I said, "Yeah, that's right. Bloody Italians."
0:40:20 > 0:40:21Bloody Italians.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24So we had a bit of a laugh and then they just turned their backs
0:40:24 > 0:40:26and away they went, and I went on.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32And I often thought, God, if I'd only found out who they were.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34After, you know, you don't think of it then,
0:40:34 > 0:40:38but after the war, to meet 'em!
0:40:43 > 0:40:45It's June 1941.
0:40:46 > 0:40:51Tobruk's defenders are getting enough food and ammunition through the harbour to hang on.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56But the garrison's commander, General Morshead,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59does not want his men to succumb to a siege mentality.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02He said, "We're going to besiege the besiegers."
0:41:02 > 0:41:07And the essence of that policy was patrolling, aggressive patrolling,
0:41:07 > 0:41:11not just for reconnaissance but to take the fight to the enemy.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26Patrols were part of our life, every night.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30RADIO: 'Red line at minus one seven five.'
0:41:30 > 0:41:32You get told what you're going to do,
0:41:32 > 0:41:35what you're supposed to do, and you check out all your weapons
0:41:35 > 0:41:37and what you're going to take
0:41:37 > 0:41:41and you make sure you don't have anything on
0:41:41 > 0:41:44that will jingle or anything like that.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47We didn't, very rarely wore our tin hats out on patrol.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51We generally wore a knitted beanie because hats, or tin hats,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55made a noise in the wind and you couldn't hear properly.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57And by the same token, of course,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00you can get behind a tin hat and a lump of sand
0:42:00 > 0:42:02and you think you're bulletproof
0:42:02 > 0:42:05and of course, that doesn't stop much at all,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07but still and all, it feels good.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11RADIO: 'Black line Z plus 235
0:42:11 > 0:42:14'seventeen fifty yards at eight minutes.'
0:42:14 > 0:42:17If you were on patrol, you had one bloke counting paces
0:42:17 > 0:42:19so that you knew how far you were going.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23And you'd work by the stars.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26And naturally, of course, they're in the northern hemisphere
0:42:26 > 0:42:30so it takes a while to get used to the different stars.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33And believe me at night time, there, when it's clear,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36no dust storms or anything like that,
0:42:36 > 0:42:41you can read a compass or a watch by starlight.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44'Red line at minus one seven five,
0:42:44 > 0:42:46'fourteen fifty yards at four minutes.'
0:42:48 > 0:42:50I can remember one night we went out,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52it was right up to their barbed wire,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56and you could hear them talking, but I think there was only five of them.
0:42:58 > 0:42:59So we tied...
0:42:59 > 0:43:02very quietly tied stuff onto their barbed wire,
0:43:02 > 0:43:05so as when they woke up the next day and looked up,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09they'd know darned well we'd been right there on their doorstep.
0:43:09 > 0:43:15Just to get on their nerves, and we thought it was a hell of a joke.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20Occasionally, the patrols are more deadly.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34But if conditions in the desert change, it's easy to get lost.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39When a sand storm blows up, you can't read your watch,
0:43:39 > 0:43:40you can't read the bloody compass,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43and you're hoping to God
0:43:43 > 0:43:46that somebody is a better direction finder than you are.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50SAXOPHONE PLAYS
0:43:50 > 0:43:53And all of a sudden you can hear the sax.
0:43:55 > 0:43:56Ted Donkin.
0:43:56 > 0:43:57Luckily in B Company,
0:43:57 > 0:44:01we had a bloke named Ted Donkin that used to play the saxophone,
0:44:01 > 0:44:03and he used to play every night.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07One of the things he used to play was Estrelita.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10Little Star, or Star Of Love.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15HE HUMS ALONG
0:44:21 > 0:44:24And that got to be one of my favourite songs, believe me.
0:44:35 > 0:44:40As the months wear on, the poor diets and constant shelling take their toll.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46In varying degrees, they all get dysentery and desert sores
0:44:46 > 0:44:47and sick at heart.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50I reckon we'll be out of here in a month or so.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53They're starved of news and rumours abound.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55How do you figure that?
0:44:55 > 0:44:58The boys from 2nd 24th said to me. They reckons Rommel's pulling out.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00There were always rumours of course.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03The Australians were going out in a fortnight's time
0:45:03 > 0:45:05or something or other.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08The boat was coming, somebody was coming to relieve us or...
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Then there was a rumour that Rommel was pulling out.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14Bull dust, mate. He's not going anywhere and neither are we.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17We'll be here until Christmas at least.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19Even though they were rumours, I don't think any of us
0:45:19 > 0:45:22ever really believed them, just the same.
0:45:22 > 0:45:27They were too hard to believe that we'd be pulling out and coming home.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31But the rumours aren't far off the mark.
0:45:31 > 0:45:35From July 1941, General Blamey, the Commander of the Australians
0:45:35 > 0:45:38in the Middle East, was putting pressure on his own government
0:45:38 > 0:45:41and on British command to relieve the Australians from Tobruk.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44He felt that they were run down
0:45:44 > 0:45:48and he got the backing of the Australian government in that.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52When the requests arrive at Middle East High Command,
0:45:52 > 0:45:54they ignite a major row.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57Taking the Australians out of Tobruk is a big risk.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00It means using a lot of shipping to move the Australians out
0:46:00 > 0:46:02and their replacements in,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06and troops that are being brought in to replace the Australians
0:46:06 > 0:46:10have to be found somewhere else, at a time where General Auchinleck
0:46:10 > 0:46:14is under pressure to prepare for the next big offensive.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18As politicians and generals argue their future,
0:46:18 > 0:46:23the Rats of Tobruk enter their fifth month in the front lines.
0:46:42 > 0:46:43You all right, mate?
0:46:43 > 0:46:45THEY COUGH
0:46:49 > 0:46:53All decisions affecting Allied troops in the desert war
0:46:53 > 0:46:56are processed through this building in Cairo.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03American Military Attache, Colonel Bonner Fellers,
0:47:03 > 0:47:04is a frequent visitor.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10The United States is not in the war and he's a neutral observer.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16Colonel Fellers? General Webb will see you now, sir.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Nevertheless, the British are desperate for American help,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22so Cairo is told to make Colonel Fellers welcome,
0:47:22 > 0:47:24and roll out the red carpet.
0:47:26 > 0:47:27In the summer of 1941,
0:47:27 > 0:47:32Churchill's wooing of the United States was approaching a crescendo.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34He was acutely conscious that
0:47:34 > 0:47:38while Britain might be able to avert defeat, it hadn't a cat's chance
0:47:38 > 0:47:41of achieving victory without the United States in the war,
0:47:41 > 0:47:45and he knew that the United States was quite uninterested
0:47:45 > 0:47:47in propping up losers.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50If we are to hold on to Cairo and Suez, we must defend Tobruk.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54As the representative of a potential ally,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58Fellers is given access to the most secret and strategic information.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03In Cairo, there's nobody more important to the Brits
0:48:03 > 0:48:06at this point in the war than Colonel Fellers.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08Through Fellers,
0:48:08 > 0:48:14they can deliver their perspective on that theatre to Washington.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21Middle East Command is confident that it can not only hold Tobruk,
0:48:21 > 0:48:23but drive forward from Egypt and relieve it.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Bonner Fellers is encouraged to go and see for himself.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32He is allowed to go wherever he wanted, to any battle
0:48:32 > 0:48:35and to position himself wherever he wanted to
0:48:35 > 0:48:37in order to observe that battle.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40There were no doors closed to Colonel Fellers.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45But the British strategy soon backfires.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Colonel Fellers reports back to Washington that the British Army
0:49:28 > 0:49:32is not very good, that British equipment is inferior
0:49:32 > 0:49:37to the German equipment in North Africa, and he also reports back,
0:49:37 > 0:49:42in detail, that the British are likely to lose the war
0:49:42 > 0:49:45in North Africa.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57At the end of a long summer,
0:49:57 > 0:50:01Rommel's North African campaign receives a boost.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05The Australian General Blamey has got his way
0:50:05 > 0:50:08and the battle-hardened diggers are pulling out.
0:50:08 > 0:50:14The news that we were leaving was absolutely wonderful.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17It couldn't have come quick enough.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21We were tired, we were hungry for a decent meal.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23We had sores,
0:50:23 > 0:50:28we wanted to taste a bit of decent water, a decent bit of food
0:50:28 > 0:50:33and somewhere where somebody wasn't shooting at you for a while.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37The Australians leave Tobruk and are moved to Syria
0:50:37 > 0:50:39to recover and resupply.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41We were sorry to see them go.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44We didn't think they were running away.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47They were being ordered to go and we were all soldiers.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49So we know, you get an order, you just obey it.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Actually we were sorry that we weren't Australians
0:50:52 > 0:50:55because we would have liked to have gone as well.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05The Australians are replaced by fresh troops
0:51:05 > 0:51:07from England and Scotland.
0:51:07 > 0:51:08BAGPIPES PLAY
0:51:08 > 0:51:11'We're at Battalion headquarters, and you'll gather from the sounds
0:51:11 > 0:51:14'from the next dugout there are some Scotsmen about.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17'A famous Scottish regiment has come to relieve an Australian Battalion,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21'and at the moment we are in the CO's dugout where the Australian Colonel
0:51:21 > 0:51:24'is about to hand over command to a Scottish Battalion.'
0:51:24 > 0:51:27The make-up of the new British division was interesting
0:51:27 > 0:51:29because it had in it one regiment
0:51:29 > 0:51:32which was thoroughly battle hardened,
0:51:32 > 0:51:34and that regiment was the 2nd Black Watch.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39The Black Watch were a very singular regiment from three
0:51:39 > 0:51:42counties in Scotland - Perthshire, Angus and Fife.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47So you've got a soldier there who is used to country ways,
0:51:47 > 0:51:50added to a genuine physical and mental toughness.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55It represented a part of Scotland which was very distinctive,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57and they were very sure of themselves.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01They were more of a family perhaps than a fighting formation.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06I was 19 when I joined up.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09I wanted to get into the Black Watch but it was full.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13So I had to go into the Royal Engineers, because I had
0:52:13 > 0:52:16an uncle in the Royal Engineers in the First World War
0:52:16 > 0:52:22but finally I was commissioned in the Black Watch,
0:52:22 > 0:52:24on my 21st birthday.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28While the men from the cold regions of Scotland
0:52:28 > 0:52:30acclimatised to the desert,
0:52:30 > 0:52:34the Allies start building up their resources at the Egyptian border.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42Auchinleck is planning a major new offensive to begin in November.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44Operation Crusader.
0:52:44 > 0:52:50Operation Crusader will deploy 120,000 men and 700 tanks.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54The main force will destroy Rommel's armour in the areas south
0:52:54 > 0:52:58and east of Tobruk, then, in a coordinated manoeuvre,
0:52:58 > 0:53:00link up with troops breaking out of the garrison.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03This will bring an end to the siege in Tobruk.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07Laid out on a map in the war room in Cairo, it looked simple.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12On the battlefield, it's soon bloody chaos.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38Bonner Fellers is there watching American-made Stuart tanks
0:53:38 > 0:53:42go up against the heavier German Panzers.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44They're fast but thinly armoured.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59Meanwhile, the men inside the Tobruk garrison are preparing
0:53:59 > 0:54:02to attack through the south eastern perimeter.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06Our job was to make a corridor and then hold that corridor
0:54:06 > 0:54:09until the British troops linked up.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15BAGPIPES PLAY
0:54:15 > 0:54:18The Scottish 2nd Black Watch regiment bears the brunt
0:54:18 > 0:54:20of the initial fighting.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29What happens to Black Watch here was that there was a muddle.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32The armour wasn't in the expected position at the right time
0:54:32 > 0:54:37and that meant that lightly armed infantrymen were having to occupy
0:54:37 > 0:54:40strong points which basically needed armour to give them
0:54:40 > 0:54:42the proper kind of support.
0:54:42 > 0:54:47The Black Watch made their initial charge through No Man's Land
0:54:47 > 0:54:49with tremendous casualties.
0:54:56 > 0:55:01Of the 650 Black Watch soldiers who went into action,
0:55:01 > 0:55:05there were only 130 odd left, and a watching officer
0:55:05 > 0:55:07of the Royal Horse Artillery said that that move
0:55:07 > 0:55:11by the Black Watch was one of the most courageous things
0:55:11 > 0:55:14that he had ever seen during the siege of Tobruk.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Operation Crusader grinds on for weeks,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22until both sides are at the point of exhaustion.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27And I remember looking at the sky...
0:55:28 > 0:55:32..and the clouds were blowing to the west.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34And I thought, "That's symbolic."
0:55:34 > 0:55:37Isn't it funny how these things stick in your mind?
0:55:37 > 0:55:39And watching these clouds I thought, "Yes, that's a signal.
0:55:39 > 0:55:44"God, Tobruk's going to be relieved. Oh, thank God."
0:55:48 > 0:55:52With 33,000 of his men killed, captured or missing,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55and with most of his tanks destroyed or out of action,
0:55:55 > 0:55:57Rommel is exhausted.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02The pendulum in the desert war has swung again.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05Now, it's the Desert Fox who must retreat.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08"Dearest Lu, we are pulling out.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11"There was simply nothing else for it.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14"You can't imagine what it's like.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20"Hoping to get the bulk of my force through and make a stand somewhere."
0:56:22 > 0:56:27'The garrison broke out of Tobruk and joined up with the relieving forces.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30'Tobruk had done its duty magnificently and now
0:56:30 > 0:56:33'in place of the gallant Allied defenders, it was quickly filling up
0:56:33 > 0:56:38'with German and Italian prisoners, waiting to be sent back to Egypt.'
0:56:38 > 0:56:41The Allied successes in North Africa dominate the headlines...
0:56:43 > 0:56:44..but only for a week.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53Churchill hears the news of Pearl Harbour
0:56:53 > 0:56:56at around about 9 o'clock in the evening,
0:56:56 > 0:56:59when he's at the Prime Minister's country retreat, at Chequers.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03And Churchill is almost overjoyed
0:57:03 > 0:57:09because now America is in the war, and he records that that night
0:57:09 > 0:57:14he went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved.
0:57:18 > 0:57:22But for the defenders of Tobruk, and the Axis forces opposing them,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24the desert war is far from over.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26Oh, shit!
0:57:30 > 0:57:34In early January 1942, Rommel and his Panzerarmee Afrika are back.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40With fresh supplies, and a new shipment of tanks,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43the Desert Fox launches a surprise attack.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54In just three weeks,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57Rommel is once again within striking distance of Tobruk.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01But this time, he has an extraordinary advantage.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05In the most incredible intelligence coup the Germans ever have
0:58:05 > 0:58:08in the Second World War, he has information,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12high level information, from deep within his enemy's camp
0:58:12 > 0:58:15that will deliver him Tobruk and perhaps even Egypt itself.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22Next time on Desert War,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26the Axis juggernaut rolls towards Cairo with new-found confidence.
0:58:26 > 0:58:31I'm afraid the British Cavalry units often showed themselves very brave
0:58:31 > 0:58:33but they also often showed themselves incredibly stupid.
0:58:34 > 0:58:38The Desert Fox knows his enemy's every move.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41The whole army was retreating.
0:58:41 > 0:58:43It was a rout and they suspect a traitor.
0:58:43 > 0:58:47But in a windswept desert, at a place called El Alamein,
0:58:47 > 0:58:50the last great army of the British Empire will draw
0:58:50 > 0:58:54a line in the sand and turn the tide of the Second World War.
0:58:54 > 0:58:57Tonight, we're going to hit the enemy for six.